My First Wedding Cake

My friend asked me to make her wedding cake. She wanted three layers of chocolate cake for her 150 guests and a rich fruit cake on the top for herself.

The largest cake is 12 inches, the next layer 10 inches, the third layer 8 inches. They are all four inches high chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream filling and chocolate ganache and covered with icing. The top layer of fruit cake was 6 inches covered with marzipan and icing. I decorated the cake with aqua coloured butterflies and fondant figures of the bride and groom and their two children.

Two New Birthday Cakes

I was given just a day's notice to make these two cakes but I'm happy with the results.

First up was the Spiderman cake, I've had practice with this one. I wasn't one hundred percent happy with the shape but the cake was bigger than before and I'm happier with the icing.

The second cake was One Direction. I'd have liked some more time to design this but the recipient was really happy with what I came up with. 

Wedding Cake Practice

I'm really excited and really nervous about making my friends wedding cake next month. I don't want to give too much away but she wants four tiers, three chocolate and one rich fruit. I'm doing the small top one in the fruit which is going to be a nightmare as I won't be able to add it to the cake until the very last minute for fear of it sinking into the lighter chocolate cakes. It shouldn't though, because it will only be a small cake (even though it's heavy) and I'll be using a cake board between it and the next cake. I'll also be dowling every layer of cake below it, so hopefully they should be well supported for the few hours they need to be. Fingers tightly crossed anyway.

The three chocolate cakes will have chocolate filling and a chocolate ganache under the icing. So I've been practising my chocolate cakes with ganache and icing and I think I have it sorted. I will need to do my icing a little thicker than I usually like so the chocolate doesn't show through. I'm really not fond of thick icing though. Maybe I should have pressed for white chocolate, but then I hear that it is more difficult to work with.

The cakes will need to be as perfect as possible as there is not going to be too much decoration. There will be some vines and tiny blossom and butterflies. The cake will also be in two colours, not just white. I can't give too much away on the colour scheme.

On the top I'm going to try and make icing figures of the bride and groom, and on the next layer down, their two little boys sitting on the edge of the cake.

I've already had a go at making one of the boys and I was really happy with it, apart from the face...that needs a little more practice.

Here is a cake a made last week to practice the flavours, smooth icing and vines and butterflies. It's not really a representation of the finished cake, just me practicing some skills.

When I make the actual cake this will be the second smallest cake at 8" round and 5" high. 

Chocolate, Coffee and Hazelnut Cake

The other half asked me for a chocolate and hazelnut cake for his birthday and this is what I came up with.

Chocolate, Coffee and Hazelnut Cake

Ingredients:

• 
  
• 225g unsalted butter
• 225g golden caster sugar
•  3  eggs
• 200g self raising flour
•  25g cocoa powder
•  2tsp instant coffee mixed in 1 tbs hot water

Filling:

 

• 60g unsalted butter
• 110g icing sugar, sifted
• 50g blanched hazelnuts, chopped into very small pieces
• 10g cocoa powder

Topping:

• 200g dark chocolate
• 25 g butter
• 100g cream
• 50g blanched hazelnuts

Method:

cream the butter and sugar together

add the eggs to the mixture one at a time, mixing them in well each time

sift in the flour and cocoa powder and fold into mixture

add coffee and stir in lightly

Place mixture into a greased and lined 8 in cake tin and bake for 40 minutes on gas mark4 or 180C

When cake has cooked through, until a skewer insterted comes out clean, leave to cool

turn out of pan and make filling

To make filling, mix all the ingredients except the nuts together in a food mixer until smooth. Or you can beat them together with a wooden  spoon. 

Add nuts.

When cake is fully cooled, cut it in half using a serrated knife with a sawing motion.

Spread one half with filling and replace the top half.

Make topping by warming the cream and butter in a saucepan. When hot, but not boiling, remove from heat and add chocolate broken into chunks, stir until all combined.

Leave topping mixture to cool for at least 1/2 hour.

spread topping on the cake and decorate with hazelnuts

My Little Pony Rainbow Dash Cake

For my daughter's 7th birthday she wanted a My Little Pony cake, in particular a Rainbow Dash cake.

I decided to do an 8" round cake featuring Rainbow Dash and a rainbow. For a little twist I decided to make the actual cake rainbow coloured and the keep the icing white.

I made up the cake mix and then split it into 6 equal bowls. I then added food dye to each bowl, using red, orange, yellow, green and blue. I decided against using indigo and used a violet coloured buttercream. I put the mixture into the cake tin in concentric circles starting with an outer ring of red and working down to the blue in one half, then doing the opposite in the other, i.e. blue to red.

rainbow cake mix

rainbow cake mix

I then baked the cake, trimmed it and filled it with butter cream. Then I put a layer of butter cream over the cake and put it in the fridge.

I covered the cake in plain white icing. The rainbow I made using my coloured fondant. Unfortunately the red fondant had become brittle and difficult to work with and I had no time to wait until I could buy or make some more. I had no choice but to reverse the rainbow so the red would be the smallest amount of colour used. Rainbows actually go from red on the outside down to voilet on the inside. I had to make mine the other way around and hope that no-one noticed. (My eldest daughter noticed straight away) The rainbow was made on a piece of card as I realised it would be the only way to make it stand up.

The pony I made myself by cutting out pieces of fondant and placing them on the cake. I was a little worried that if it went wrong I would end up with a big mess, but my back-up plan was to cover the area with a white disc and start again. Luckily this didn't happen as I was quite happy with the result. I then added the rainbow and fixed it in place with icing clouds. I also piped around the outside bottom edge of the cake and added my daughter's name.

I was nervous about how the cake looked inside. I have made rainbow cakes before but always used thin slices of coloured sponge cake fitted together with butter cream, but I have found these to be a little sickly. This method was an experiment and I had no idea how it was going to look until I cut it open.

Rainbow cake inside

Chocolate and Ginger Cream Cake

It was my birthday on Monday so the perfect excuse to come up with something special with flavours I love, chocolate and ginger. I wanted a light cake that would go really well with a cream filling and topping.

Ingredients:

• Inch of fresh ginger peeled and finely chopped
• 1 tbs caster sugar
• 250g self-raising flour
• 3 tsp ground ginger
• 1tsp ground cinnamon
• 170g unsalted butter or Stork
• 170g soft light brown sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 4 tbs golden syrup
• 160g dark chocolate
• 250g buttermilk

for the filling/topping

• 250g whipping cream
• 1 inch of fresh ginger peeled and sliced

Method

• Start with the filling. bring the cream and ginger to almost boiling in a pan. Put in a bowl, cover and place in fridge for at least two hours, or overnight. Before using, strain the cream and whip into peaks.
• preheat oven to 180C/gas mark 4
• grease and line two 7 inch cake tins
• put the fresh ginger and caster sugar together in a bowl and set aside.
• melt 60g of the chocolate either in the microwave or in a heatproof bowl over a pan of boiling water. Leave to cool
• chop the remainder of the chocolate into small pieces
• In another bowl cream the butter and brown sugar together until fluffy.
• beat in the eggs one at a time
• beat in the golden syrup
• beat in the melted chocolate and the sugared ginger
• add the ground ginger and cinnamon to the flour
• add one third of the flour and spice mixture to the cake batter and fold in
• add one third of the butter milk to the cake batter and fold in
• continue to add the further two thirds of flour and buttermilk alternately until it is all folded into the cake batter.
• fold in the chopped up chocolate
• divide the mixture between the two tins
• bake for about 30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.7
• allow to cool, first in tins, then on a rack
• Once cakes are completely cool cover on cake generously with the whipped ginger cream
• place the other cake on top and cover the top with the remainder of the cream

The combination of ginger and chocolate with the ginger cream really is delicious. I enjoyed my birthday cake :-)

How To Bake A Cake With a Flat Top

My cakes always come out domed, that's why I tend to make two halves in sandwich tins. They still have domes though and I waste a lot of cake with trimming and my hips just can't afford it. I've tried cake pops but they are just not my thing (i.e. I can't get them to work) So I decided to pick up some tips on how I could make a flatter cake and have less waste.

Tip 1: Insulate the tin. You can buy insulating strips for your cake tins, or if you are a cheap skate like me, just use doubled up greaseproof paper tied on with string. Insulating means the cake is cooked more evenly, usually the sides cook quicker which means the middle domes.

Tip 2: Make sure you are extra careful when folding in the flour. You know it has to be done slowly right? Do you sometimes get lazy like me and just stir it in without thinking? I creates too much air and the cake rises unevenly.

Tip 3. Cook the cake on a slightly lower temperature for a longer time. This ensures the heat is evenly distributed through the cake and prevents the sides cooking first.

Tip 4: Make a slight well in the centre of the cake batter before cooking. I've tried this several times before and it doesn't really work, but might help with a combination of the other tips.

So, I had a go and baked a regular sponge cake  in one 8 inch cake tin using all four of the above tips.

Here is the result:

What do you think? I was quite happy that it came out fairly flat. It did sink a little right in the middle and I think another 5 minutes of cooking might have prevented that, although the cake was cooked. I had to put a piece of greaseproof paper before it had cooked properly as it was starting to get quite brown on the top. I turned it over to decorate it and didn't have to trim it all, so success, no wastage.